Word study
Faint
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: faint, faints, fainted, fainting. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “faint” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָטַף âṭaphturn asidetranslated this way 9 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H5848Verb · Translated: faint 3, grows faint 3Full study and all 15 verses →
Psalm 61:2 From the ends of the earth I call out to You whenever my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Lamentations 2:11 My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
- עָיֵף âyêphbe fainttranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5888Verb · Translated: faint 2, exhaustion 1, became exhausted 1, faints 1Full study and all 5 verses →
1 Samuel 14:28 Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”
Jeremiah 4:31 For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child — the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”
- עָלַף âlaphcovertranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5968Verb · Translated: covered her face 1, bedecked 1, fainted 1, faint 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Isaiah 51:20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like an antelope in a net. They are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
Amos 8:13 In that day the lovely young women — the young men as well — will faint from thirst.
- רָכַךְ râkakbe tender, weak, softtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7401Verb · Translated: tender 2, fainthearted 1, faint 1, softer 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Job 23:16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
Jeremiah 51:46 Do not let your heart grow faint, and do not be afraid when the rumor is heard in the land; for a rumor will come one year— and then another the next year— of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
- יָעַף yâaphbe weary, fainttranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3286Verb · Translated: grow tired 2, weary 2, faint 1, grows faint 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 44:12 The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.
- דַּוָּי davvâyfainttranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1742Adjective · Translated: faint 2, afflicted 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Jeremiah 8:18 My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.
Lamentations 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before You, and deal with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.
- דָּוֶה dâvehfaint, unwelltranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H1739Adjective · Translated: faint 2, woman 1, menstruating 1, menstrual cloths 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Lamentations 1:13 He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
Lamentations 5:17 Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
- כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 2 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb · Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7Full study and all 200 verses →
Psalm 84:2 My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 119:81 My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐκλύω eklýōI am unstrung, become weak, failtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1590Verb · Translated: faint 2, lose heart 2, give 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 15:32 Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way.”
Mark 8:3 If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a great distance.”
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.